Narrative of the surveying voyages of his majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle (vol.2): between the years 1826 and 1836 : describing their examination of the southern shores of South America, and the Beagles's circumnavigation of the globe

70 # LOSS OF THE THETIS. Dec. hope of further communication with the land was suspended. Every effort that could be made to convey a rope to the shore was attempted in vain, until Mr. Geach, the boatswain, went out on the stump of the bowsprit, and by the help of two belaying-pins, succeeded in throwing the end of a small rope to the rocks, by which a large one was immediately hauled ashore, and then kept as much stretched as the strength of the men wlio had landed would allow. On this larger rope each man was slung, in his turn, and hauled by the small one through the surf to a rough craggy rock. Mr. Geach and John Langley, the captain of the forecastle, were among the last to leave the ship, having almost exhausted themselves in slinging their shipmates. As day-light broke, the last man was hauled ashore. Many were terribly bruised and lacerated by the fall of the masts, or during these struggles for life, and twenty-five persons perished. Some of the officers made their way to a small village near Cape Frio, and obtained horses, and a guide who conducted them to Rio de Janeiro, where the melancholy news was com- municated to the commander-in-chief. The captain, the other officers, and the crew, remained near the place of the wreck, waiting for assistance. An adequate cause for so great an error in the reckoning of only nineteen hours as that which occasioned the loss of this fine ship and twenty-five souls, besides the personal property of those on board, and a large freight of treasure, is not difficult to find, even without supposing the compasses to have been in error, or affected by local attraction, which, by the way, would in this case have operated in the ship''s favour. The vicinity of Cape Frio, one of the most salient promon- tories on the coast of Brazil, cannot be supposed exempt from currents ; set in motion either by temporary causes, such as strong or lasting winds ; or by the varying pressure of the atmosphere upon different portions of the ocean : — or from tidal streams, more or less strong.